Generalization Quotes - Page 4

• Newton's great generalization, which he called the "third law of motion," was that "Action and reaction are always equal to each other;" and that law has been one of the most pregnant of all truths about the mystery of force;--one of the brightest windows through which modern eyes have looked into the world of Nature.

  Phillips Brooks

  Eye, Law, World

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• Prediction can never be absolutely valid and therefore science can never prove some generalization or even test a single descriptive statement and in that way arrive at final truth.

  Gregory Bateson

  Finals, Tests, Way

  "Mind and Nature - a Necessary Unity". Book by Gregory Bateson, new edition, 1988.

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• Travelers are much at the mercy of phrases ... vast generalizations formulate in their exposed brains.

  Virginia Woolf

  Brain, Phrases, Mercy

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• If it is to be effective as a tool of thought, a notation must allow convenient expression not only of notions arising directly from a problem, but also of those arising in subsequent analysis, generalization, and specialization.

  Kenneth E. Iverson

  Expression, Analysis, Tools

  "Notation as a Tool of Thought". Cvommunications of the ACM, 23 (8), (pp. 444 - 465), August 1980.

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• Law is no explanation of anything; law is simply a generalization, a category of facts. Law is neither a cause, nor a reason, nor a power, nor a coercive force. It is nothing but a general formula, a statistical table.

  Florence Nightingale

  Law, Tables, Causes

  Florence Nightingale, Michael D. Calabria, Janet A. Macrae (1994). “Suggestions for Thought by Florence Nightingale: Selections and Commentaries”, p.41, University of Pennsylvania Press

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• During the first half of the present century we had an Alexander von Humboldt, who was able to scan the scientific knowledge of his time in its details, and to bring it within one vast generalization. At the present juncture, it is obviously very doubtful whether this task could be accomplished in a similar way, even by a mind with gifts so peculiarly suited for the purpose as Humboldt's was, and if all his time and work were devoted to the purpose.

  Hermann von Helmholtz

  Knowledge, Science, Mind

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• Footballers do get a hard time, and there is a lot of generalization going on. When you get to meet players and know them as lads, it's always a bit different.

  Frank Lampard

  Hard Times, Player, Different

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• It is time, therefore, to abandon the superstition that natural science cannot be regarded as logically respectable until philosophers have solved the problem of induction. The problem of induction is, roughly speaking, the problem of finding a way to prove that certain empirical generalizations which are derived from past experience will hold good also in the future.

  A.J. Ayer

  Past, Superstitions, Way

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• There is nothing particularly scientific about excessive caution. Science thrives on daring generalizations.

  Lancelot Hogben

  Science, Daring, Caution

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• People who like quotes love meaningless generalizations

  Graham Greene

  People, Meaningless

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• One generalization that is supported both by research and experience is that effective two-way communication is essential to proper functioning of the leader-follower relationship.

  John W. Gardner

  Communication, Two, Leader

  JOHN W. GARDNER (1986). “LEADERSHIP PAPERS/3: THE HEART OF THE MATTER LEADER-CONSTITUENT INTERACTION”

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• The word generalization in literature usually means covering too much territory too thinly to be persuasive, let alone convincing. In science, however, a generalization means a principle that has been found to hold true in every special case.... The principle of leverage is a scientific generalization.

  R. Buckminster Fuller

  Mean, Special, Literature

  R. Buckminster Fuller (1982). “Synergetics: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking”, p.26, Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller

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• Data without generalization is just gossip.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Data, Gossip

  Robert M. Pirsig (1991). “LILA An Inquriry into Morals”

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• Limitation is a good discipline because it discourages inappropriate generalization, which distracts attention from the profound, particular complexity that characterizes anything at all.

  Marilynne Robinson

  Discipline, Profound, Attention

  "One of Obama’s Favorite Writers Redefines Spirituality". Interview with Gregory Barber, www.motherjones.com. October 25, 2015.

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• In displaying the psychology of your characters, minute particulars are essential. God save us from vague generalizations! Be sure not to discuss your hero's state of mind. Make it clear from his actions. Nor is it necessary to portray many main characters. Let two people be the center of gravity in your story: he and she.

  Anton Chekhov

  Hero, Character, Two

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• So far, we have been able to study only one evolving system and we cannot wait for interstellar flight to provide us with a second. If we want to discover generalizations about evolving systems, we will have to look at artificial ones.

  John Maynard Smith

  Waiting, Want, Able

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• In your 20s - and these are generalizations of course - I feel like I didn't care about as many things or as many people, or even myself, as much. There's more recklessness and more ruthlessness; you're not as considerate of how things land with other people I think.

  Naomi Watts

  Thinking, Land, People

  Source: www.indielondon.co.uk

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• In a novella, a whole lot of crap can happen, and you can build momentum and suspense and leave room for a surprise or three. Stories are cut down to the most essential elements, and novels (this might be an unfair generalization on my part) are big fat clumsy efforts where the reader can snooze for a couple chapters and miss nothing of consequence. Hence my love for the middle way.

  Robert Reed

  Couple, Cutting, Effort

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• I'm always loath to make generalizations about what is for children and what isn't. Certainly children's literature as a genre has some restrictions, so certain things will never pop up in a Snicket book. But I didn't know anything about writing for children when I started - this is the theme of naïveté creeping up on us once more - and I sort of still don't, and I'm happy that adults are reading them as well as children.

  Daniel Handler

  Children, Book, Reading

  Interview with Tasha Robinson, www.avclub.com. November 16, 2005.

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• He resented such questions as people do who have thought a great deal about them. The superficial and slipshod have ready answers, but those looking this complex life straight in the eye acquire a wealth of perception so composed of delicately balanced contradictions that they dread, or resent, the call to couch any part of it in a bland generalization. The vanity (if not outrage) of trying to cage this dance of atoms in a single definition may give the weariness of age with the cry of youth for answers the appearance of boredom.

  Peter De Vries

  Eye, Vanity, People

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• As a broad generalization, big businesses have no moral objections to being whores. Getting into bed with Uncle Sam is all a question of price, not principle.

  Jonah Goldberg

  Uncles, Bed, Principles

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• I don't want to make vast generalizations about people who go into legal professions, but there are similarities in the barristers that I met and interacted with, in the sense that they tend to be highly eloquent, highly analytical, thinking people who have a very rapid-fire think-before-they-speak button, as it were.

  Rebecca Hall

  Thinking, Fire, People

  Source: collider.com

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• I am bad at cultural generalizations but I would venture to say that by a wide margin there is less hypocrisy about sex in France than in America.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Sex, America, Hypocrisy

  Source: www.hollywoodchicago.com

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• If I can make a generalization, men get into politics because, from the time they're little boys, they've been wanting to be President.

  Barbara Boxer

  Men, Boys, President

  Source: progressive.org

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• It simply isn't true, for example, that being big is in general better for fitness than being small except when there are effects of interacting variables; or that flying slow and high is in general better for fitness than flying fast and low except when there are effects of interacting variables; or that being monogamous is in general better for fitness than being polygamous... except when there are effects of interacting variables... It's not that the underlying generalizations are there but imperceptible in the ambient noise.

  Jerry Fodor

  Flying, Example, Variables

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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